11-22-10 email

We dont ride bikes because people drive crazy here and we would get killed haha So we have to use taxis!

This week went by very fast, half this transfer is already over! Time really goes by fast when your days are always planned out and your busy! This week has been filled with new and interesting things as is every day here in Oaxaca. My Spanish seems to be improving because people keep telling me that it is getting better every time they see me! I have been studying Spanish alot lately along with my other studies that I am very involved in! Right now we are teaching alot of people and have lots of baptisms that are in progress, the problem here is that we are more in the city, and people here are just really busy and always have something to do or somewhere to go, and the rule to get baptized is that they have to come to church 3 times in order to be baptized, we have like 8 people right now who want to be baptized but either have to work on Sundays or they aren't married or what not! Well my week

Monday: Not too much happened it was a Pday and at night we had a zone meeting in Monte-Alban which is like an hour away so we went to that then after we had to hurry back because the bishop asked us to teach an 8yr old member some lessons because she was going to get baptized the following Saturday, so we got to there house around 850 pm and our curfew is 930pm so we had to rush through the lesson and after they made us eat some food haha, so we left at like 950pm so we got home late, that why we usually dont have appointments on Monday but oh well!

Tuesday: We had a great day planned with lots of lessons and good stuff like that, but just like that every single one of our appointments fell through, and I dont know why but nobody was home, we even tried going to members and less actives but it seemed like everyone had plans that day except for us! So we didnt really get too much done that day, it was just one of those long hard days of a mission! Also that night when I was talking to my comp he said that he has never told anyone in his whole life that he loved them except his mother! I was like what about your dad or your brothers and sisters? and he said no because in Mexico if you tell your dad or your brothers that you love them, that gay. Its kinda sad I think to have never told your dad you loved them! I guess other peoples cultures is just different!

Wed: Was a good day and a good turn around from Tuesday, in the morning we went to the market and we decided to get a Christmas Tree! haha Its only like 2 feet tall because we are poor missionaries and thats all we can afford! That night we decorated it and put lights and some ornaments! Then we put a picture of Jesus and a picture of each of our families next to the tree! I think it made both of us a little sad and homesick! Christmas is going to be very different this year! So also that day something kinda cool happened, so we went to an appointment and they werent home, which isnt very uncommon here, so as we left the pueblo for some reason we both felt like walking to our next appointment, which was about an hour walk, but as we were walking a car honked and pulled over in front of us, we werent sure who it was, we thought maybe someone wanted to harrass us haha, but it ended up being one of our investigators that we have been trying to get in contact with but we didnt have his number! He said he had been trying to get in contact with us too, and we were able to set up a time for us to come teach him! So that was a pretty cool experience!

Thursday:We left our house a little early and went to a members house because they wanted to feed us breakfast! It was good they made omelets and bacon! After that we went to a pueblo where one of our investigators lives and we found out that she almost got kidnapped. So there family has been really jumpy lately, here people get kidnapped and they sell their organs on the black market, its something really bad happening in Mexico right now! It was good that she was able to get away though! So here its really weird, people just call each other fat all the time and its like not mean. For example we were in a Taxi and in the taxis here they squeeze two people together on the front seat, and so we stopped to pick some one up and they had to get in the front seat with some one already there and the lady got in and it was hard to close the door so they laughed and teh lady that was already sitting there said "wow your really fat" and they just laughed haha, I guess its just different here

Friday: I started reading Jesus the Christ, its a very good book but very long and hard to stay focused on whats going on! My goal is to Finnish reading it by Christmas! That day we also had a very good lesson with one of our investigators named Anna, she is about 50 years old and is a school teacher, she calls us her angels because before she met us she didnt even believe in a god. She told us that she prayed and she knows that our church is true and that the book of mormon is true! She told us how her daughter is getting married and she wants us to come to like the wedding dinner and say a prayer to bless their new marriage haha!

Saturday: We went to Nazareth for lunch, thats the pueblo where the bishop lives haha, While we were walking down the street some old guy stopped us and asked us to come in so we did and he told us that he had been praying for us to come by his house and that he had been taught by misisonaries when he lived in the city but lost contact, he said he wants to be baptized, it was a cool experience! Also that night we needed to do some more contacting because we hadnt done very much that week and it was pretty crazy out of the 8 doors that we knocked 7 of them accepted to hear the message! poeple here are just very prepared to hear the gospel!

Sunday: was great as always I love going to church! So lots of our investigators went to church which is good, and one of them came that said she couldn't! But she said she felt she really needed to so she called in sick to work and came to church! Also we met a family that had walked 2 and a half hours to the chapel because they didn't have money for a taxi or a bus! It was a family of 6 and only one of them was a member, they said they wanted to be taught and join the church so they made the long walk to the chapel! Also after church we ate with a family who wanted to celebrate my birthday so they made balloons that had my name on them and they made my fav food well mexiccan food haha, Tacos al pastor and they also made my fav drink, strawberry lemonade! The people here are very nice and always try and make us happy!


Well I love you!

Elder Stradling